JANUARY 4, 2025

Dear reader,

A while ago, I decided to do away with New Year’s resolutions and focus instead on New Year’s aspirations—because why fail outright when you can fail over and over and call it growth? Still, the urge to take a hard line when it comes to bettering my body (how difficult is a triathlon, really?), mind (learning a fourth language?) and spirit (unlocking mother-loving mindfulness?) kicks in every January, despite my aversion to fools’ errands.

The people profiled in Courtney Shea’s fascinating 2022 portrait of Longevity House, a private members’ club of biohackers, have a predilection for extreme self-improvement. In fact, they barrel—oxygen-rich blood pumping, defined muscles rippling—straight toward drastic measures in the hope of living forever.

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—Stéphanie Verge, features editor

The members of Longevity House are united by two things: a willingness to hand over $100,000 and a burning desire to live forever. Inside the weird world of cryotherapy, biocharging and fecal transplants

BY COURTNEY SHEA | AUGUST 22, 2022

In 2021, a group of 30 people gathered at an Etobicoke estate to sample the latest in life-extension innovations. They sipped brain-boosting beverages and soaked up the electro­magnetic pulses of the BioCharger, a $20,000 device that is purported to fight brain fog, flagging libido and other ailments. The evening was a soft launch for Longevity House, a club for Toronto’s burgeoning community of biohackers. The price tag, $100,000 for a lifetime membership, was staggering. And the promise was even more so: a chance to live longer, possibly to 120 years old, free from chronic illness and cognitive decline. But, as writer Courtney Shea discovered, when miracle cures hit the mainstream and medicine mixes with profit motives, there’s more than enough reason to be skeptical. 

In the latest issue: the ultimate try-anything-once, antidote-to-doomscrolling bucket list for 2025. Plus, a ranking of the city’s best new cookies, up close and personal with the Beaches and more. Still not receiving Toronto Life at home? Subscribe today.

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